Danger at Molly Stark is deterioration, cancer-causing asbestos

The defunct Molly Stark Hospital is haunted by scrappers, vandals and ghost hunters. But the real danger is the dilapidated building itself and its cancer-causing asbestos.

Lori Monsewicz

Vandals, particularly young people, are breaking into the deteriorating Molly Stark Hospital, especially in October when most are looking for a “real” haunted house.

Maintenance workers return to the five-story building three or four times a week to replace wooden panels covering the broken windows.

Scrappers, juvenile delinquents and ghost hunters are the primary culprits.

“The worst possible thing is someone, maybe even some high school kid, gets in there and falls and gets injured or even dies,” said Robert Fonte, director of Stark County Parks, which owns the property at 7900 Columbus Road NE. “It’s a safety issue.”

THE DANGER

Fonte said his agency went into the buildings years ago to remove whatever materials scrappers hadn’t already stolen.

Environmental Protection Agency specialists told park officials that the scrappers are the primary reason cancer-causing asbestos is now airborne in the building and that no one should enter without a respirator.

Chief Park Ranger Dan George said the biggest problem is curious youngsters, not ghost-hunting enthusiasts. Earlier this month, a park ranger caught a group of teens carrying an extension ladder on the property.

“They were also carrying bookbags with tools to remove the boards on the windows and they had respirators,” he said. “The (actual) ghost-hunting groups have been very respectful. They’ve made formal requests. They just want to be inside. Teenagers don’t care about that asbestos. They just want to get inside that building.”

George said he has witnessed young people scale the second- and third-floor balconies on the front of the building, balconies that overlook asphalt.

“There’s no power in there. The building is a well-constructed building, but the inside is in very bad condition. I’m not so sure they think it’s that big of a crime. The parents will take the attitude — about 50 percent of the time — that ‘Really? This is a crime?’ Yeah, it’s a crime.”

Trespassing is typically a misdemeanor that could mean 30 days behind bars. Yet, George said, most violators know they face only a fine. Caught inside the building, however, they also face a breaking and entering charge and resulting felony record.

“It’s going to get worse this month,” George said, noting that Halloween is near. “It’s already a lot more active. Molly Stark is really high up on the list of places that ghost-hunters want to get into.”

When the park rangers aren’t there, Stark County sheriff’s deputies preside. Deputies have addressed more than 260 incidents at Molly during the past decade, Capt. Tim George said.

While rangers routinely find trespassers with tools on the property, they’ve also run into groups of people wearing identical T-shirts bearing the names of paranormal organizations.

In most cases, the parks chief said, they don’t try to get in. “They are just looking at the building,” he said, adding that people from out-of-state also have driven up to him, asking about the building after seeing it on a website touting paranormal potential.

Any haunting history is a myth, said Todd Clark, history programmer for Stark Parks.

“There are a lot of misunderstandings about the buildings. A lot of people confuse Molly Stark with the old Massillon State psychiatric hospital,” he said.

“When older buildings are abandoned and unused, they develop their own local lore. There are a lot of rumors that (Molly is) haunted. It’s become a rite of passage for the paranormal groups. The ghost hunters are looking to hear the screams of tortured patients. But that’s not Molly Stark. They’re looking for Massillon State.”

ONE SUGGESTION

Greg Feketik is the senior founder of Tri-C Ghost Hunters, which has teams of paranormal investigators in Cleveland, Columbus and Canton. He wonders if the hospital could be renovated into a tourism site, like the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield where he volunteers for ghost hunts.

“Molly is intriguing because of its history, the architecture, the size and because there’ve been a number of deaths there. When you add all that stuff together, it just screams ‘ghosts,’ ” Feketik said. “It would make a ton of money. That’s what happened to the Mansfield Reformatory. They were originally going to tear it down and then this group of people in the area came together and raised the money and look what they turned it into. That place is just totally awesome.”

Feketik and the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society’s web site at www.mrps.org said the group not only operates ghost hunts, the old prison has been the site of several music videos, movies and TV shows, including the Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures.” The society’s “ghost hunts” cost $70 per person and one can average about 100 people, the web site said.

“Too bad that doesn’t happen with Molly Stark. It’d be a shame for them to tear it down,” Feketik said.

Reach Lori at 330-580-8309 or lori.monsewicz@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @lmonsewiczREP

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